Dr. Terence Meaden's Posts - Atheist Nexus2016-12-09T16:09:47ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeadenhttp://api.ning.com:80/files/t4lRGZ5APQusNcSlPNOdpdMgP3xFOSXXtR3syF5HAwhEprqv1OktDqUr6Ka2vE9jsy2oys*BcUUxIXyN8sbgiM04KTSj78-K/1129494848.jpeg?xgip=244%3A333%3A2713%3A2713%3B%3B&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://atheistnexus.org/profiles/blog/feed?user=22h444cwuzhba&xn_auth=noI wish a Merry IsaacNewtonMas to everyone, everywhere.tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-12-25:2182797:BlogPost:21300812012-12-25T21:20:07.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
<p>I wish a Merry IsaacNewtonMas to everyone, everywhere.</p>
<p>.<br/>We know to 100% accuracy that the great scientist and mathematician was born on 25 December, whereas there is only a 1 in 365 chance that Jesus was.</p>
<p>I wish a Merry IsaacNewtonMas to everyone, everywhere.</p>
<p>.<br/>We know to 100% accuracy that the great scientist and mathematician was born on 25 December, whereas there is only a 1 in 365 chance that Jesus was.</p>Burnt Toast: Atheist Sees Image of the 'Birth of Earth' in a Piece of Toasttag:atheistnexus.org,2011-08-26:2182797:BlogPost:15785222011-08-26T10:30:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
<p><em>Atheist Sees Image of the 'Birth of Earth' in Burnt Toast</em></p>
<p><em><br></br></em></p>
<p>Yes it’s true.</p>
<p>This genuine picture was photographed in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England by science atheist Dr. Terence Meaden earlier this month.</p>
<p>He could barely withhold his excitement.</p>
<p>“I was having breakfast when this piece of ciabatta toast got burnt,” he said. “Suddenly I was aware that the pattern of light and darkness across the toast resembled what could have been…</p>
<p><em>Atheist Sees Image of the 'Birth of Earth' in Burnt Toast</em></p>
<p><em><br/></em></p>
<p>Yes it’s true.</p>
<p>This genuine picture was photographed in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England by science atheist Dr. Terence Meaden earlier this month.</p>
<p>He could barely withhold his excitement.</p>
<p>“I was having breakfast when this piece of ciabatta toast got burnt,” he said. “Suddenly I was aware that the pattern of light and darkness across the toast resembled what could have been a visible manifestation of primeval events at the time that planet Earth was forming four and a half billion years ago.</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/NXuaI8oVjMoB7PtF6yFbm5uQHvU442QA9nb9EEAZ7B3B-FXb9gOSkYth6uAIFd1h*oj8fYYtFOX6Pt6V0aCbZgrEHPMOGwX5/BurntToastpictureofthebirthofEarth.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/NXuaI8oVjMoB7PtF6yFbm5uQHvU442QA9nb9EEAZ7B3B-FXb9gOSkYth6uAIFd1h*oj8fYYtFOX6Pt6V0aCbZgrEHPMOGwX5/BurntToastpictureofthebirthofEarth.jpg?width=750" width="750" class="align-full"/></a><em><span class="font-size-2">Genuine unretouched photograph, copyright G.T. Meaden</span></em></p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Physicist and archaeologist Dr. G. Terence Meaden from Oxford University continued, “I feel humbled that I should have been chosen to receive this vision and expression of non-godist reality in this unexpected way. It is plainly a subtle manifestation of the high principle of atheism that <i>goddidnotdoit.”</i></p>
<p>It is likely to make national headlines as this sensational story spreads through the rationalist community of nonbelievers in godism. Goddidit followers may be unhappy about it though, but after all—if one imitates their sloppy use of the word ‘theory’—“goddidit is only a ‘theory’, seeing that gods are mere constructs of the human mind”.</p>
<p>“It is exciting because this piece of toast was absolutely genuine. No trickery. It happened, just like that”, said Dr. Meaden—a Tommy Cooper fan.</p>
<p>“You can see a representation of the birthing planet taking in asteroid-size spherical fragments as Young Earth spins and grows into the big planet that we know today.”</p>
<p>We may expect the story to go worldwide as non-acceptors of godism take note. “All I can say is you gotta believe this, because it happened. I have always concurred with the scientific truths of the Aged Earth theory because proven scientific facts are right.” Some years ago a worthy atheist* reported an image of burnt toast as depicting the Big Bang, but no photograph was ever produced—so perhaps that account was satirical. Mine is not. I have the picture to prove it.</p>
<p>So can we see the toast, this remarkable vision?</p>
<p>“I’m afraid the photograph is all that remains. The experience so overwhelmed me that, stunned and unthinkingly, I photographed it, buttered it and ate it”. But I do have the negative of the original picture, and the satisfaction of having actually eaten a piece of a nongod.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p> * * * * *</p>
<p> </p>
<p>* thanks to <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.satireandcomment.com/0208toast.html">http://www.satireandcomment.com/0208toast.html</a> where a pictureless image of the Big Bang was reported some years ago.</p>Origin of the term WINTER OF DISCONTENT as used for British Industrial strife from 1975 onwardstag:atheistnexus.org,2010-03-19:2182797:BlogPost:7639552010-03-19T10:30:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">ORIGIN OF THE TERM “THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT” as used for BRITISH INDUSTRIAL STRIFE FROM 1975</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">(Extract from the Editorial of <em>The International Journal of Meteorology</em> January 2010…</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">ORIGIN OF THE TERM “THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT” as used for BRITISH INDUSTRIAL STRIFE FROM 1975</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">(Extract from the Editorial of <em>The International Journal of Meteorology</em> January 2010</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It is a delight to look back to Issue number 1 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Journal of Meteorology</i> which I was preparing in the summer of 1975 for publication in October; and a still greater delight to know that 35 years later the magazine continues in good hands under the editorship of Samantha Hall.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I recall that even as I was typing that first editorial there was occurring late one afternoon—on 14 August—the heaviest rainfall ever known for the London area, and this extreme event happened in Hampstead with a fall of 170.8mm (6.72 inches) in the space of two-and-a-half hours. It was most timely to record this as a 3-page article in the first issue, with a follow-up in the second issue of the magazine.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">At the same time because Britain was having its hottest summer for 28 years, it was opportune to profit from this with reviews and digests in the pages of the new magazine. In fact, the summer began inauspiciously with a cool May and a poor start to June, with snow stopping cricket (!) at Buxton in Derbyshire and Colchester in Essex. Britain had suffered a long winter of social unrest and industrial strikes when the late snow and ground frosts came—to be immediately followed by the first of the summer heat and the British referendum on the European Common Market. This led me to write to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Times</i> where my letter to the editor was published, following which the nation’s social discord was rebranded as “the winter of discontent”, and adopted and used by politicians ever since. The letter follows:</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">“Sir, On June 3 when your correspondents, Mr Green and Mrs. Mortimer, were preparing their letters, Britain’s hills had been swept with snow and her valleys filled with frost as reminders that it can sometimes be difficult for Britain to rid herself completely of one winter before commencing the next. Nevertheless, on June 6, the day of the proclamation of the historic “Yes to Europe”, the Continent responded with a warm wind of welcome. From one weekend to the next, our long and cheerless winter was replaced by the joy and warmth of summer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">“Now is the winter of our discontent</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Made glorious summer by the sun of York.” ... Richard III.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Yours faithfully, G. T. Meaden, Editor."</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The several major articles in the first issue included “Of raingauges and kings—the story of rainfall measuring at the royal palaces”, “Britain’s extreme temperatures by month of the year”, “A history of tornado study in Britain”, “The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation”, “The climate of Rugby”, and articles by weather forecasters Michael Hunt and Bob Prichard.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">As for the success of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation, that is another great story.</span></p>
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<p></p>A nerdy testtag:atheistnexus.org,2009-10-30:2182797:BlogPost:5771942009-10-30T21:34:37.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
I came across this test a few minutes ago, so I had a go.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_nq.php"><br />
<img src="http://www.nerdtests.com/images/ft/nq/b1ccbdb62e.gif" alt="I am nerdier than 99% of all people. Are you a nerd? Click here to take the Nerd Test, get geeky images and jokes, and talk on the nerd forum!"/></a>
I came across this test a few minutes ago, so I had a go.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_nq.php"><br />
<img src="http://www.nerdtests.com/images/ft/nq/b1ccbdb62e.gif" alt="I am nerdier than 99% of all people. Are you a nerd? Click here to take the Nerd Test, get geeky images and jokes, and talk on the nerd forum!"/></a>Today is the first anniversary of founding the "Origins" grouptag:atheistnexus.org,2009-09-15:2182797:BlogPost:5045902009-09-15T21:30:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
Today 15th September 2009 is the first anniversary of founding “Origins”.<br></br>
<br></br>
I had joined Atheist Nexus in August 2008 and soon thought that a group discussing the ideas and problems of “origins” of any kind, whether real (through responsible scientific research, discovery and rational contemplation) or fallacious (as with unproven beliefs including the fraudulent religions and other swindles, impostures, deceits and hoaxes) would be helpful.<br></br>
<br></br>
There have been 175 discussion…
Today 15th September 2009 is the first anniversary of founding “Origins”.<br/>
<br/>
I had joined Atheist Nexus in August 2008 and soon thought that a group discussing the ideas and problems of “origins” of any kind, whether real (through responsible scientific research, discovery and rational contemplation) or fallacious (as with unproven beliefs including the fraudulent religions and other swindles, impostures, deceits and hoaxes) would be helpful.<br/>
<br/>
There have been 175 discussion topics with thousands and thousands of fine contributions.<br/>
<br/>
Thank you all.<br/>
<br/>
It makes a good read turning back through the pages.Happy Darwin Day to everyone today 12 February 2009tag:atheistnexus.org,2009-02-12:2182797:BlogPost:2221472009-02-12T12:00:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
200 years ago, on 12 February 1809, was born Charles Darwin—who grew and matured to become one of the world’s truly great scientists.<br />
<br />
“If only everybody in the world would avoid contact with religionists and their fictions,<br />
<br />
and instead be educated from childhood with facts from the realm of science,<br />
<br />
we would have a better, happier world of people believing in the truths of evolutionary science,<br />
<br />
who would smile as much at the stupidities of pathetic creationists as at the stories of other…
200 years ago, on 12 February 1809, was born Charles Darwin—who grew and matured to become one of the world’s truly great scientists.<br />
<br />
“If only everybody in the world would avoid contact with religionists and their fictions,<br />
<br />
and instead be educated from childhood with facts from the realm of science,<br />
<br />
we would have a better, happier world of people believing in the truths of evolutionary science,<br />
<br />
who would smile as much at the stupidities of pathetic creationists as at the stories of other imagined gods from history and prehistory . . .<br />
<br />
. . . for gods exist only in the neuron circuits of the heads of their believers and have no other foundation or authority whatever.”<br />
<br />
Terence Meaden. "Origins" Group. Atheist Nexus. 12 February 2009HELPING BELIEVERS TO KNOW THEIR BIBLE BETTER: PART 2tag:atheistnexus.org,2009-01-09:2182797:BlogPost:1912512009-01-09T20:00:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
Here is a suggestion from Malcolm Hutton: National Secular Society Newsletter, 9 January 2009<br />
<br />
"One could take action when a bible is presented in hotel or hospital. First of all go prepared with a yellow highlight pen and ask if the bible is yours to keep. Then highlight some of the most damaging verses, such as –<br />
<br />
Luke 14:26 – hate your mother and father<br />
Matthew 10:34/36 – he came not for peace but with a sword<br />
Psalm 137:9 – it will make you happy to dash your little ones against a…
Here is a suggestion from Malcolm Hutton: National Secular Society Newsletter, 9 January 2009<br />
<br />
"One could take action when a bible is presented in hotel or hospital. First of all go prepared with a yellow highlight pen and ask if the bible is yours to keep. Then highlight some of the most damaging verses, such as –<br />
<br />
Luke 14:26 – hate your mother and father<br />
Matthew 10:34/36 – he came not for peace but with a sword<br />
Psalm 137:9 – it will make you happy to dash your little ones against a stone<br />
Leviticus 26:29 – eat the flesh of your sons and daughters<br />
Proverbs 28:25 – if you trust the Lord you will put on weight<br />
Matthew 23:9 – don't call a priest, father<br />
Deuteronomy 19:18/19 – Kill anyone who tells a lie<br />
Exodus 35:2 – Kill anyone who works on Sunday<br />
Leviticus 20:27 – Kill all mediums by stoning<br />
Deuteronomy 21:18/21 – Kill a rebellious son by stoning<br />
Leviticus 24:14/16 – Kill anyone who utters a curse by stoning."<br />
<br />
Thousands more could be added to this list.<br />
<br />
Part 1 of "Helping believers to know their bible better" was published by Terence on 7 September 2008.ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS---A Christmas Storytag:atheistnexus.org,2008-12-21:2182797:BlogPost:1722542008-12-21T16:46:37.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS — A True Christmas Story<br />
<br />
Long ago, country peoples from the Neolithic onwards celebrated the winter and summer solstices as the prime celestial events of significance to agriculturists in need of a simple calendar. 21st December is the year’s shortest day. For some days about then in the northern-hemisphere, the day length between sunrise and sunset hardly changes, and the point of sunrise on the far horizon scarcely changes either between any of the days from 18th to 25th…
ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS — A True Christmas Story<br />
<br />
Long ago, country peoples from the Neolithic onwards celebrated the winter and summer solstices as the prime celestial events of significance to agriculturists in need of a simple calendar. 21st December is the year’s shortest day. For some days about then in the northern-hemisphere, the day length between sunrise and sunset hardly changes, and the point of sunrise on the far horizon scarcely changes either between any of the days from 18th to 25th December.<br />
<br />
There are many web sites that discuss the detail of “The Origin of Christmas”, among them http://www.hope-of-israel.org/christ~3.htm and<br />
http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/12/merry_newtonmas.html<br />
<br />
Regarding the Christian search for a day on which to remember the birth of their hero, Barbara Walker among many others says that the fourth-century Roman church “favored the Mithraic winter-solstice festival called <i>Dies Natalis Solis Invictus,</i> Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun. Blended with the Greek sun-festival of the Helia by the emperor Aurelian, this December 25 nativity also honored such gods as Attis, Dionysus, Osiris, Syrian Baal, and other versions of the solar Son of Man.” (1983. <i>Encyclopedia,</i> p.166, Harper Row)<br />
<br />
Thus it came to pass that christian bishops at a 4th century meeting deliberately picked the holy day that everybody already loved because of its importance to pagan farming communities. And that is briefly how celebration of the prehistoric winter solstice on 21 December got shifted to 25 December.<br />
<br />
A longer version of this note was posted today on the group "ORIGINS" where I remark that atheists are sincerely better off in recognising 25 December as “Newtonday” or “Newtonmass”, about which I am just finishing the preparation of another Nexus note.Darwin's Birthday: Your chance to vote 12th February as a new national holiday in Britaintag:atheistnexus.org,2008-12-16:2182797:BlogPost:1665512008-12-16T20:12:45.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
This one is for the British.<br />
<br />
You have the chance to add your name to a petition at the Prime Minister's web site of 10 Downing Street.<br />
<br />
If you go to the web address<br />
<br />
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Darwins-day/<br />
<br />
you can add your name to the petition requesting that 12th February, which is Charles Darwin's birthday, be made into a Bank Holiday.<br />
<br />
For some time the government has been seeking an additional bank holiday to give to the public.<br />
<br />
The memory of Charles Darwin deserves as much.<br />
<br />
Isaac…
This one is for the British.<br />
<br />
You have the chance to add your name to a petition at the Prime Minister's web site of 10 Downing Street.<br />
<br />
If you go to the web address<br />
<br />
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Darwins-day/<br />
<br />
you can add your name to the petition requesting that 12th February, which is Charles Darwin's birthday, be made into a Bank Holiday.<br />
<br />
For some time the government has been seeking an additional bank holiday to give to the public.<br />
<br />
The memory of Charles Darwin deserves as much.<br />
<br />
Isaac Newton already has a day which atheists celebrate, and that is Isaac's birthday on 25th December. [The man that christians choose to think about was not even born on that day, but Isaac Newton really was].<br />
<br />
Deadline for signing up is 24 January 2009Films and Pictures of great interest to Atheiststag:atheistnexus.org,2008-12-16:2182797:BlogPost:1663152008-12-16T14:39:49.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
<i>Films and Pictures of Great Interest to Atheists</i><br />
<br />
There are some wonderful images and about 25 enjoyable video films, each around 8 to 10 minutes long, that can be watched on the Nexus site “ORIGINS”.<br />
Among them:<br />
“Evidence for the Big Bang in 10 little minutes”<br />
“The Universe: Secrets of the Sun”<br />
“Birth of the Universe, Big Bang and beyond”<br />
“How the Earth was made”<br />
“Charles Darwin’s legacy”<br />
<br />
Do drop by and view these amazing films.<br />
<br />
—Terry Meaden—
<i>Films and Pictures of Great Interest to Atheists</i><br />
<br />
There are some wonderful images and about 25 enjoyable video films, each around 8 to 10 minutes long, that can be watched on the Nexus site “ORIGINS”.<br />
Among them:<br />
“Evidence for the Big Bang in 10 little minutes”<br />
“The Universe: Secrets of the Sun”<br />
“Birth of the Universe, Big Bang and beyond”<br />
“How the Earth was made”<br />
“Charles Darwin’s legacy”<br />
<br />
Do drop by and view these amazing films.<br />
<br />
—Terry Meaden—ORIGINS OF GODStag:atheistnexus.org,2008-11-24:2182797:BlogPost:1470952008-11-24T21:15:23.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
Today is ten weeks since the group ORIGINS was founded in Atheist Nexus, and today we had our 100th member. Again, welcome to everyone and to future new members.<br />
<br />
The group debates origins of life, Earth, humanity, religion, gods, atheism, etc. using rationality, commonsense, evolution, Darwinism, cosmology, geology, archaeology and science to reject the fantasy nonsense that is religion and above all repudiate biblical creationist fictions.<br />
<br />
In the course of time we expect to cover aspects of…
Today is ten weeks since the group ORIGINS was founded in Atheist Nexus, and today we had our 100th member. Again, welcome to everyone and to future new members.<br />
<br />
The group debates origins of life, Earth, humanity, religion, gods, atheism, etc. using rationality, commonsense, evolution, Darwinism, cosmology, geology, archaeology and science to reject the fantasy nonsense that is religion and above all repudiate biblical creationist fictions.<br />
<br />
In the course of time we expect to cover aspects of most matters regarding 'fundamental origins' that interest the rational open minds of intelligent freethinkers.<br />
<br />
"The fundamentals necessary for religious belief are a dependence on the credulity of the multitude through the quackery and deception of others. Surely life on Earth did not evolve in order to produce humans in such a state of mass gullibility. If so, this would mean that the human brain is only part way to evolved perfection.<br />
Religion is the outward manifestation of false beliefs that exist nowhere but inside people’s heads. ‘God’ is nothing but a fancy of storytelling that is just clever enough to convince the trusting young and credulous older people but not silly enough to be revealed to them as the imposter that it is; while being nonetheless blatantly obvious to the uninfected brains of the world’s freethinkers". Terence Meaden.<br />
<br />
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x<br />
<br />
“No man who ever lived knows any more about the hereafter than you and I; and all religion is simply evolved out of chicanery, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.” Edgar Allan Poe. 1809-1849<br />
<br />
“Gods are all in the mind. They are the imaginations of wishful thinkers who do not think enough because they have not learned enough. In short, god exists only in the head, and not outside of it.” Terence Meaden. Atheistweb 17 February 2008<br />
<br />
“One might ask “How can you prove that a god does not exist?” One can only reply that it is scarcely necessary to disprove what has never been proved.” David A. Spitz<br />
<br />
“Religions are fairy-like fictions. Once created (usually by men who are the makers of male gods), they are promulgated by priests (usually men who promote and sustain patriarchies) and succeed because they nourish easily-satisfied cerebral needs for most people (who are fearful once indoctrinated) in providing personal comfort and solace.” Terence Meaden. Atheistweb 6 January 2008.<br />
<br />
Albert Einstein: “The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.” (Albert Einstein, in a recently discovered letter, reported in The Guardian, May 2008)The story of how the fictional Peter of the New Testament came to be inventedtag:atheistnexus.org,2008-11-09:2182797:BlogPost:1374382008-11-09T10:57:03.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
FRAUD: THE MYTH OF SAINT PETER—the man who never was.<br />
ORIGINS OF RELIGIONS, PART 4<br />
Barbara Walker, in her opus The woman’s encyclopedia of myths and secrets. (1993. Harper and Row) wrote about the fancy and fiction of St. Peter who we may call “the man who never was”.<br />
<br />
“The myth of Saint Peter was the slender thread from which hung the whole weighty structure of the Roman papacy. One solitary passage in the Gospel of Matthew said Jesus made a pun by giving Simon son of Jonah the new name of…
FRAUD: THE MYTH OF SAINT PETER—the man who never was.<br />
ORIGINS OF RELIGIONS, PART 4<br />
Barbara Walker, in her opus The woman’s encyclopedia of myths and secrets. (1993. Harper and Row) wrote about the fancy and fiction of St. Peter who we may call “the man who never was”.<br />
<br />
“The myth of Saint Peter was the slender thread from which hung the whole weighty structure of the Roman papacy. One solitary passage in the Gospel of Matthew said Jesus made a pun by giving Simon son of Jonah the new name of Peter, “Rock” (Latin petra), saying he would found his church on this rock (Matthew 16: 18-19).<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for Papal credibility, the so-called Petrine passage was a forgery. It was deliberately inserted into the scripture about the third century AD as a political ploy, to uphold the primacy of the Roman see against rival churches in the east. [Reinach, S. Orpheus. New York, Horace Liveright Inc. 1930, 240].<br />
<br />
Various Christian bishoprics were engaged in a power struggle in which the chief weapons were bribery, forgery, and intrigue, with elaborate fictions and hoaxes written into sacred books, and ruthless competition between rival parties for the lucrative position of god’s elite. [H. Smith (1952). Man and his gods. Little, Brown and Co. Boston, USA.]<br />
<br />
Most early churches put forth spurious claims to foundation by apostles, even though the apostles themselves were no more than the mandatory “zodiacal twelve” attached to the figure of the sacred king. Early popes were often mere names, drawn from titles of Roman gods, such as Eleutherios or Soter, falsely inserted into an artificial chronology to simulate succession from Peter.<br />
<br />
The real roots of Peter’s legend lay in pagan Roman myths of the city-god called Petra, or Pater Liber, assimilated to the Mithraic pater partum (Father of Fathers), whose title was corrupted into papa, then “Pope”. This personage had been both a Rock and a Father—that is a phallic pillar—in the Vatican mundus since Etruscan times, when oracular priests called vatis gave their title to the site.<br />
<br />
Other variations of the pagan deity’s name were Patriarch (Chief Father), Pompeius, and Patricius (Patrick). Like Indian Brahmans, Roman “patricians” claimed a patrilineal descent from the god. Since his name also meant a rock, he was what the Old Testament called “the Rock that begat thee” (Deuteronomy 32:18).<br />
<br />
THE VATICAN PHALLUS: The god’s stone phallus remained planted in the Vatican mount through the later stages of the Roman empire and well into the Middle Ages—perhaps even into the 19th century, when a visitor said Vatican authorities “kept in secret a large stone emblem of the creative power, of a very peculiar shape” [G. R. Scott. Phallic Worship. Associated Booksellers. Westport, Conneticut].<br />
<br />
Medieval names for such an object—perron, pyr, Pierre—show that it was both a “rock” and a “peter”. Such was the ancient Pater’s phallic sceptre or pillar topped with a pine cone, the thyrsus of Pater Liber. Church authorities often converted a carved perron into a Christian symbol simply by placing a cross on its tip.<br />
…<br />
…<b><br />
It is now certain that there was no St. Peter in Rome to “found the papacy.”[</b>Reinach 240]. Stories about Peter were invented after the Roman see was well established. During the first five centuries of the Christian era, no one thought the bishop of Rome had a right to govern other bishops; there was no such doctrine as the primacy of the Roman see. <b>“Christ neither founded nor desired the Church.”</b><br />
Indeed, the Jesus of the Gospels would have had no reason to found a church, since <b>his principal message was that the world was going to end almost at once."</b>The Enlightened Observertag:atheistnexus.org,2008-10-26:2182797:BlogPost:1309422008-10-26T12:30:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
I also post to a blog at The Enlightened Observer<br />
<br />
http://enlightened-observer.blogspot.com/
I also post to a blog at The Enlightened Observer<br />
<br />
http://enlightened-observer.blogspot.com/ORIGINS OF RELIGION, MORALITY AND BELIEF—select quotations. PART 1tag:atheistnexus.org,2008-10-23:2182797:BlogPost:1296722008-10-23T20:43:31.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
ORIGINS OF RELIGION, MORALITY AND BELIEF—select quotations. PART 1<br />
<br />
“If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve its own interests.” Baron D'Holbach<br />
<br />
<br />
Natural Morality:<br />
If human morals and values do not arise out of divine command, then…
ORIGINS OF RELIGION, MORALITY AND BELIEF—select quotations. PART 1<br />
<br />
“If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve its own interests.” Baron D'Holbach<br />
<br />
<br />
Natural Morality:<br />
If human morals and values do not arise out of divine command, then where do they come from? They come from our common humanity. They can be properly called humanistic.<br />
A considerable literature exists on the possible natural (biological, cultural, evolutionary) origins of morality. Darwin saw the evolutionary advantage of cooperation and altruism. Modern thinkers have elaborated on this observation, showing in detail how our moral sense may have arisen naturally during the development of modern humanity.<br />
We can even see signs of moral, or proto-moral behavior in animals. Vampire bats share food. Apes and monkeys comfort members of their group who are upset and work together to get food. Dolphins push sick members of a pod to the surface to get air. Whales will put themselves in harm's way to help a wounded member of their group. Elephants try their best to save injured members of their families.<br />
In these examples we glimpse the beginnings of the morality that advanced to higher levels with human biological and cultural evolution. You may call them instinctive, built into the genes of animals by evolution. But this is a plausible mechanism for the development of human morality as well—a purely natural process, arising out of matter alone. Nothing ‘spiritual’ is involved because there is no substance separate from matter that we can call ‘spirit’. (I suggest the name of this magazine be changed to Science &amp; Nothing.)<br />
It seems likely that this is where we humans have learned our sense of right and wrong. We have taught it to ourselves. Do Our Values Come from God? The Evidence Says No. Victor J. Stenger. August 2005<br />
<br />
<br />
The Beginnings of Morality lie in Primate Behaviour: Frans de Waal. New York Times. March 2007.<br />
Religion can be seen as another special ingredient of human societies, though one that emerged thousands of years after morality. There are clear precursors of morality in nonhuman primates, but no precursors of religion. So it is reasonable to assume that as humans evolved away from chimpanzees, morality emerged first, followed by religion. “I look at religions as recent additions,” he said. “Their function may have to do with social life, and enforcement of rules and giving a narrative to them, which is what religions really do.”<br />
<br />
<br />
“During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, human fantasy created gods in man's own image who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate influence, the phenomenal world.” Albert Einstein 1879-1955<br />
<br />
<br />
“Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes.” Bertrand Russell 1872–1970<br />
<br />
<br />
“Gods are all in the mind. They are the imaginations of wishful thinkers who do not think enough because they have not learned enough. In other words, god exists only inside the head, and not outside of it.” Terence Meaden, 17 February 2007.<br />
<br />
<br />
“The supreme mystery of despotism . . . is to keep men in a state of deception and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear . . . so they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.” Baruch Spinoza<br />
<br />
<br />
“Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence; it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.” Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970<br />
<br />
<br />
“Religions are fairy-like fictions. Once created (usually by men, the makers of male gods), they are promulgated by priests (usually men who promote and sustain patriarchies) and succeed because they nourish easily-satisfied cerebral needs for most people (who get fearful when indoctrinated) in providing personal comfort and solace.” Terence Meaden. Atheistweb. 6 January 2008.<br />
<br />
<br />
“Traditionally, brand-name religion is instilled from infancy, often with ferocious warnings against heretics and infidels, making it hard to doubt the precepts with which one has grown up.” Damien Broderick. The Australian. March 2007.<br />
<br />
<br />
“All religions start with the very young, and condition them to believe that their teachings are the correct teachings, and to question those teachings is somewhere between blasphemy and a sin. Many grow up to be closed minded on religion, since it is a conditioning process, rather than a process of logical reasoning. They cannot go against what they have been taught all their lives, and what all their family and friends believe, without becoming an outcast.” Robert Dewar, The Enquirer. 2007<br />
<br />
<br />
Excerpt from a review, 2006, in Scientific American of Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell.<br />
“If nowhere else, the dead live on in our brain cells, not just as memories but as programs—computer-like models compiled over the years capturing how the dearly departed behaved when they were alive. These simulations can be remarkably faithful. In even the craziest dreams the people we know may remain eerily in character, acting as we would expect them to in the real world. Even after the simulation outlasts the simulated, we continue to sense the strong presence of a living being. Sitting beside a gravestone, we might speak and think for a moment that we hear a reply. In the 21st century, cybernetic metaphors provide a rational grip on what prehistoric people had every reason to think of as ghosts, voices of the dead. And that may have been the beginning of religion.<br />
If the deceased was a father or a village elder, it would have been natural to ask for advice—which way to go to find water or the best trails for a hunt. If the answers were not forthcoming, the guiding spirits could be summoned by a shaman. Drop a bundle of sticks onto the ground or heat a clay pot until it cracks: the patterns form a map, a communication from the other side. These random walks the gods prescribed may indeed have formed a sensible strategy. The shamans would gain in stature, the rituals would become liturgies, and centuries later people would fill mosques, cathedrals and synagogues, not really knowing<br />
how they got there.” The complete review is at :<br />
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067003472X/002-3131770-7372014?v=glance&amp;n=283155<br />
His explanation of the god phenomenon is not so different from what Euhemerus proposed in 400 BC, although it is more satisfactory because we have a better knowledge of the brain and the Neolithic world than did Euhemerus.<br />
<br />
<br />
“If the philosophers were to form a government, the people, after 150 years, would forge some new superstition, and would either pray to little idols, or to the graves in which the great men were buried, or invoke the sun, or commit some similar nonsense. Superstition is the weakness of the human mind, which is inseparably tied up with it; it has always existed, and always will.” Frederick the Great, letter to Voltaire, 1766.<br />
<br />
<br />
“I believe that the idea of God has been a disaster for humanity, and any person who bases their morality on the writings of hallucinating pre-modern nomads is going to have pretty warped values.” (Johann Hari, Attitude, June 2006)<br />
<br />
<br />
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” Albert Einstein<br />
<br />
<br />
Tags: beliefs, gods, morals, origins, religionDeleting a duplicate entry.tag:atheistnexus.org,2008-10-23:2182797:BlogPost:1296702008-10-23T20:30:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
Deleting a duplicate entry.
Deleting a duplicate entry.ORIGINS OF RELIGION, MORALITY AND BELIEF—select quotations. PART 1tag:atheistnexus.org,2008-10-23:2182797:BlogPost:1296592008-10-23T20:00:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
ORIGINS OF RELIGION, MORALITY AND BELIEF—select quotations. PART 1<br />
<br />
“If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve its own interests.” Baron D'Holbach<br />
<br />
<br />
Natural Morality:<br />
If human morals and values do not arise out of divine command, then…
ORIGINS OF RELIGION, MORALITY AND BELIEF—select quotations. PART 1<br />
<br />
“If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve its own interests.” Baron D'Holbach<br />
<br />
<br />
Natural Morality:<br />
If human morals and values do not arise out of divine command, then where do they come from? They come from our common humanity. They can be properly called humanistic.<br />
A considerable literature exists on the possible natural (biological, cultural, evolutionary) origins of morality. Darwin saw the evolutionary advantage of cooperation and altruism. Modern thinkers have elaborated on this observation, showing in detail how our moral sense may have arisen naturally during the development of modern humanity.<br />
We can even see signs of moral, or proto-moral behavior in animals. Vampire bats share food. Apes and monkeys comfort members of their group who are upset and work together to get food. Dolphins push sick members of a pod to the surface to get air. Whales will put themselves in harm's way to help a wounded member of their group. Elephants try their best to save injured members of their families.<br />
In these examples we glimpse the beginnings of the morality that advanced to higher levels with human biological and cultural evolution. You may call them instinctive, built into the genes of animals by evolution. But this is a plausible mechanism for the development of human morality as well—a purely natural process, arising out of matter alone. Nothing ‘spiritual’ is involved because there is no substance separate from matter that we can call ‘spirit’. (I suggest the name of this magazine be changed to Science &amp; Nothing.)<br />
It seems likely that this is where we humans have learned our sense of right and wrong. We have taught it to ourselves. Do Our Values Come from God? The Evidence Says No. Victor J. Stenger. August 2005<br />
<br />
<br />
The Beginnings of Morality lie in Primate Behaviour: Frans de Waal. New York Times. March 2007.<br />
Religion can be seen as another special ingredient of human societies, though one that emerged thousands of years after morality. There are clear precursors of morality in nonhuman primates, but no precursors of religion. So it is reasonable to assume that as humans evolved away from chimpanzees, morality emerged first, followed by religion. “I look at religions as recent additions,” he said. “Their function may have to do with social life, and enforcement of rules and giving a narrative to them, which is what religions really do.”<br />
<br />
<br />
“During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, human fantasy created gods in man's own image who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate influence, the phenomenal world.” Albert Einstein 1879-1955<br />
<br />
<br />
“Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes.” Bertrand Russell 1872–1970<br />
<br />
<br />
“Gods are all in the mind. They are the imaginations of wishful thinkers who do not think enough because they have not learned enough. In other words, god exists only inside the head, and not outside of it.” Terence Meaden, 17 February 2007.<br />
<br />
<br />
“The supreme mystery of despotism . . . is to keep men in a state of deception and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear . . . so they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.” Baruch Spinoza<br />
<br />
<br />
“Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence; it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.” Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970<br />
<br />
<br />
“Religions are fairy-like fictions. Once created (usually by men, the makers of male gods), they are promulgated by priests (usually men who promote and sustain patriarchies) and succeed because they nourish easily-satisfied cerebral needs for most people (who get fearful when indoctrinated) in providing personal comfort and solace.” Terence Meaden. Atheistweb. 6 January 2008.<br />
<br />
<br />
“Traditionally, brand-name religion is instilled from infancy, often with ferocious warnings against heretics and infidels, making it hard to doubt the precepts with which one has grown up.” Damien Broderick. The Australian. March 2007.<br />
<br />
<br />
“All religions start with the very young, and condition them to believe that their teachings are the correct teachings, and to question those teachings is somewhere between blasphemy and a sin. Many grow up to be closed minded on religion, since it is a conditioning process, rather than a process of logical reasoning. They cannot go against what they have been taught all their lives, and what all their family and friends believe, without becoming an outcast.” Robert Dewar, The Enquirer. 2007<br />
<br />
<br />
Excerpt from a review, 2006, in Scientific American of Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell.<br />
“If nowhere else, the dead live on in our brain cells, not just as memories but as programs—computer-like models compiled over the years capturing how the dearly departed behaved when they were alive. These simulations can be remarkably faithful. In even the craziest dreams the people we know may remain eerily in character, acting as we would expect them to in the real world. Even after the simulation outlasts the simulated, we continue to sense the strong presence of a living being. Sitting beside a gravestone, we might speak and think for a moment that we hear a reply. In the 21st century, cybernetic metaphors provide a rational grip on what prehistoric people had every reason to think of as ghosts, voices of the dead. And that may have been the beginning of religion.<br />
If the deceased was a father or a village elder, it would have been natural to ask for advice—which way to go to find water or the best trails for a hunt. If the answers were not forthcoming, the guiding spirits could be summoned by a shaman. Drop a bundle of sticks onto the ground or heat a clay pot until it cracks: the patterns form a map, a communication from the other side. These random walks the gods prescribed may indeed have formed a sensible strategy. The shamans would gain in stature, the rituals would become liturgies, and centuries later people would fill mosques, cathedrals and synagogues, not really knowing<br />
how they got there.” The complete review is at :<br />
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067003472X/002-3131770-7372014?v=glance&amp;n=283155<br />
His explanation of the god phenomenon is not so different from what Euhemerus proposed in 400 BC, although it is more satisfactory because we have a better knowledge of the brain and the Neolithic world than did Euhemerus.<br />
<br />
<br />
“If the philosophers were to form a government, the people, after 150 years, would forge some new superstition, and would either pray to little idols, or to the graves in which the great men were buried, or invoke the sun, or commit some similar nonsense. Superstition is the weakness of the human mind, which is inseparably tied up with it; it has always existed, and always will.” Frederick the Great, letter to Voltaire, 1766.<br />
<br />
<br />
“I believe that the idea of God has been a disaster for humanity, and any person who bases their morality on the writings of hallucinating pre-modern nomads is going to have pretty warped values.” (Johann Hari, Attitude, June 2006)<br />
<br />
<br />
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” Albert EinsteinWhat Is A Scientist, A True Scientist?tag:atheistnexus.org,2008-10-15:2182797:BlogPost:1269192008-10-15T22:30:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
WHAT IS A SCIENTIST, A SINCERE AND GENUINE SCIENTIST?<br />
<br />
This question about scientists arises whenever there are people hoping to claim that science and religion can be compatible. Most such commentators get the matter entirely wrong.<br />
<br />
Obviously to start with, a minimum requirement is that for somebody to be considered as even a candidate to be a scientist he or she must have had adequate scientific training OR scientific experience to a suitably high level maintained for a number of years. For…
WHAT IS A SCIENTIST, A SINCERE AND GENUINE SCIENTIST?<br />
<br />
This question about scientists arises whenever there are people hoping to claim that science and religion can be compatible. Most such commentators get the matter entirely wrong.<br />
<br />
Obviously to start with, a minimum requirement is that for somebody to be considered as even a candidate to be a scientist he or she must have had adequate scientific training OR scientific experience to a suitably high level maintained for a number of years. For some candidates, it can be enough to start with a good undergraduate degree in a science—and yet this may not be enough. It all depends . . .<br />
<br />
What is crucial is that if an otherwise qualified candidate is to be counted among true scientists, then <i>he or she must necessarily respect all the cherished interdisciplinary, self-supporting, cross-authenticating, experimental and theoretical work done by the rest of the world’s scientists in the last century and more.</i><br />
<br />
Among these are the biologists, physicists, chemists, geologists, cosmologists, astronomers, high-energy physicists, and so many others who have contributed to the discoveries of evolution and the origins of life, mankind, Earth and the Universe.<br />
<br />
<i>Anyone who might try denying the strength of what amounts to millions of experiments by millions of scientists, and instead seeks to bring the influence of some god into it, can NEVER be called a genuine scientist</i> because his or her mind is afflicted by the inadmissible holding of some kind of anti-scientific faith or belief.<br />
<br />
<b>A true scientist is one who seeks the truth and follows the evidence wherever it leads and accepts the resulting facts. Nothing is faked, nothing is forced.</b> Therefore rationality ultimately reigns. Unlike god-believers, rationalists never twist facts, whereas god-supporters ignore facts they do not like and attempt to smuggle in crazy notions about divinities.<br />
<br />
In short, gods exist only insofar as they are constructs of the human mind—like fairy-tales and other fictions—and languish nowhere else but as neuron-based ephemera or illusions in the heads of deluded believers.<br />
<br />
If somebody claiming to be a scientist does not accept that, then he or she is definitely not a <i>100% true</i> scientist because a genuine, sincere scientist never refuses to accept the corroborated facts and laws uncovered by other scientists who are experts in their own fields of dependable, repeatable, verifiable research.<br />
<br />
Science and religion are wholly incompatible.ORIGINS: WHO WERE THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN FOLLOWING THE LAST ICE AGE?tag:atheistnexus.org,2008-10-01:2182797:BlogPost:1203652008-10-01T14:28:31.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
ORIGINS: WHO WERE THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN FOLLOWING THE LAST ICE AGE?<br />
<br />
This is important because they were hunter-gatherer ancestors who had come north, after the ending of the last Ice Age from refuges and habitats in the Mediterranean region. They were the first peoples to cross the land bridge into Britain.<br />
DNA testing suggests that some were my close ancestors—viz. migrating hunter-gatherers.<br />
On a 12,000 year time-scale my ancestors and many other European ancestors were related to…
ORIGINS: WHO WERE THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN FOLLOWING THE LAST ICE AGE?<br />
<br />
This is important because they were hunter-gatherer ancestors who had come north, after the ending of the last Ice Age from refuges and habitats in the Mediterranean region. They were the first peoples to cross the land bridge into Britain.<br />
DNA testing suggests that some were my close ancestors—viz. migrating hunter-gatherers.<br />
On a 12,000 year time-scale my ancestors and many other European ancestors were related to one another. Those who have the same DNA haplogroups would be closely related.<br />
<br />
DNA TESTING<br />
I have had the haplogroups for my DNA tested for both lines of ancestors. The specialist DNA scientists were www.familygenetics.co.uk<br />
<br />
There are two forms of deep ancestry – arising via the Y and the X chromosomes.<br />
The Y chromosome is carried in the paternal male line (father to father; papa to papa).<br />
The other is the mitochondrial DNA in the X chromosome – the maternal female line (mother to mother; mama to mama).<br />
For both, DNA specialists provide information about the geographic locations and dispersals of the remote ancestors. As the science of DNA improves, the results are ever more informative as to where the ancestors may have lived.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>CASE STUDY:<br />
Haplogroup number I 1b2a which is carried on my personal Y-chromosome</i>.<br />
<br />
Group I 1b2a is uniquely European—largely found among the British, Iberians (Basque), Italians, and Sardinians.<br />
<br />
The even finer Haplogroup I 1b2a1 is entirely British, and would have descended from British I1b2a.<br />
<br />
PREHISTORY SUMMARY<br />
Haplogroups A and B emerged in Africa.<br />
About 130,000 years ago, these populations expanded throughout Africa. Palaeo-anthropological and archaeological evidence shows modern humans were in the Near East and Middle East about 70,000 years ago.<br />
In the course of time, the human genome changed again and again. People who had left Africa derived a new primary haplogroup called group F.<br />
Haplogroups from G to R are branches of F, which means that most people in Europe and the Middle East are descendants of the founder of group F.<br />
Eventually settlement in the Balkans and the Mediterranean took place, but progress across Europe was halted by the increasing cold of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).<br />
About 20,000 years ago, the founder of Haplogroup I emerged in the Balkans. As the ice retreated, members of group I spread across Europe. A small population of group I who had settled in Iberia became ancestors of my haplo sub-group, I1b2, whose members would disperse across the west of Europe. My further sub-group I1b2a is found in Sardinia, Italy and the Basque country; and up the coast of France to England.<br />
That so many I1b2a subgroup people are in Britain implies that the group carriers got there before the land-bridge was cut. They were ‘trapped’, being isolated. All later comers (like those bringing the seeds and animals associated with the Continental Neolithic) could only arrive by boat in later millennia.<br />
<br />
MALE LINE CONCLUSION<br />
DNA specialists infer that my male ancestors reached England as hunter-gatherers, and walked into before Britain became an island.<br />
<br />
⁭ FEMALE LINE Haplogroup U3: It is the same with my female line, viz. Group U3, which developed in the Ukraine and reached England via migrating hunter-gatherers moving north and west across Poland and northern Germany before the land-bridge to Britain was severed.<br />
<br />
Group U is the group shared by both schoolteacher Adrian Targett of Cheddar (Somerset) and the 10,000 year old skeleton found in a cave in his village in Cheddar Gorge. They have identical DNA showing how settled some families have been throughout this long time period.<br />
<br />
<i>THE STORY OF HAPLOGROUP I12ba1</i><br />
<i><br />
Group……..….Where………………..….........…When</i><br />
<br />
I……….….Fertile Crescent..............…25 to 20,000 years ago<br />
I1<br />
I1b……….Balkans……………….…...........15,000 years ago<br />
I1b2…....Italy...S. France…Spain......15,000-12,000 ya<br />
I1b2a…..Migrants moving north......…12,000-10,000 ya<br />
…………………..and reach Britain……c.10,000 ya<br />
I1b2a1..Almost 100% are British….....10,000-8,000 ya<br />
<br />
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WHO ELSE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THEIR DNA TESTED?HELPING BELIEVERS TO KNOW THEIR BIBLE BETTERtag:atheistnexus.org,2008-09-07:2182797:BlogPost:1034222008-09-07T09:00:00.000ZDr. Terence Meadenhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrTerenceMeaden
<b>HELPING BELIEVERS TO KNOW THEIR BIBLE BETTER</b><br />
<br />
Print this on gummed labels and stick into bibles everywhere because believers like to know their bible better.<br />
<br />
Those who claim that the bible is the word of god and therefore the truth can hardly complain.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>Megalomaniacal God and his Mass Killings</u><br />
<br />
—Genocides Committed by or Authorised by God—</b><br />
<br />
<i>Everyone in the world apart from Noah and family (Genesis 7:23)</i><br />
3000 men (Exodus 32:27, 8)<br />
<i>14,700 died (Numbers…</i>
<b>HELPING BELIEVERS TO KNOW THEIR BIBLE BETTER</b><br />
<br />
Print this on gummed labels and stick into bibles everywhere because believers like to know their bible better.<br />
<br />
Those who claim that the bible is the word of god and therefore the truth can hardly complain.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>Megalomaniacal God and his Mass Killings</u><br />
<br />
—Genocides Committed by or Authorised by God—</b><br />
<br />
<i>Everyone in the world apart from Noah and family (Genesis 7:23)</i><br />
3000 men (Exodus 32:27, 8)<br />
<i>14,700 died (Numbers 16:49)</i><br />
Everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:24)<br />
<i>All the first-born in Egypt (Exodus 12:29)</i><br />
10,000 Perizzites and Canaanites (Judges 1:4)<br />
<i>10,000 Moabites (Judges 1:4)</i><br />
120,000 Midianites (Judges 8:10)<br />
<i>50,070 people of Bethshemesh ( I Samuel 6:19)</i><br />
22,000 Syrians (II Samuel 8:5)<br />
<i>40,000+ Syrians (II Samuel 10:18)</i><br />
70,000 people (II Samuel 24:15)<br />
<i>Every man in Edom (I Kings 11:15)</i><br />
185,000 Assyrians in their sleep (II Kings 19:35)<br />
<i>500,000 men of Israel (II Chronicles 13:16-20)</i><br />
20,000 Edomites (II Chronicles 28:11,12)<br />
<i>120,000 Judeans in one day (II Chronicles 28:5,6)</i><br />
75,500+ people (Esther 9:12-14)<br />
<i>100,000 Syrian footmen (I Kings 20: 28-3)</i><br />
Et cetera.<br />
. . . . . . . . .